Minnix expects Senate to include CLASS Act in healthcare reform bill

The president and CEO of the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging feels confident that the CLASS Act will make it into a final healthcare reform bill.

"I felt like all along it was going to wind up in health reform," Larry Minnix told McKnight's Monday. He spoke during the association's annual conference in Chicago. "It's just the right thing to do."

The CLASS Act was part of the major healthcare reform legislation that the House passed Saturday. The bill now faces an even tougher test in the Senate where several moderate Democrats are opposed to the CLASS Act because of the cost involved, and other aspects of the legislation.

The act would create a consumer-funded national long-term care and disability insurance trust. Workers would pay into the trust and be eligible to receive cash after a vesting period of five years. The cash benefit they receive would be tied to their level of disability. Minnix called it "one of the big transformational items in the healthcare reform bill."

The conference continues through Wednesday. Win Marshall Monday was installed Monday as chair of AAHSA during the business meeting at the conference.

About 60,000 elderly or disabled Medicaid recipients in Louisiana are being told they should expect to lose their benefits in July, and advocates say more than a quarter of them could be forced out of the long-term care facilities they call home.